Women's gloves are often provided with ornamental elements or accessories such as bows, flowers, which cooperate with and complement the rest of the glove in order to impart an overall attractive look for the wearer.
An example of a glove provided with an ornamental element, such as a bow, is shown in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,558. In this patent, however, the ornamental element becomes a permanent part of the glove so that the wearer is compelled, if she decides to wear a particular pair of gloves, to include the particular ornamental accessory which is a permanent part of the glove even though this may not match the rest of the wearer's apparel.
It is therefore a principal object of the invention to provide a fashion glove which is adapted to receive any one of a plurality of ornamental elements but which looks as if the accessory is permanently stitched onto the glove. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the glove and the decorative element are provided with complementary fastening elements which are releasable so that the decorative element is removably secured to the glove. In accordance with such preferred embodiment, the fastener combination which is used is a conventional snap fastener comprising cooperating male and female snap portions. One of these snap portions is secured onto the glove, while the other snap portion is secured to the decorative element. The decorative element is easily secured onto the glove by the cooperating snapping action of the respective male and female snap portions.
While the use of cooperating male and female snap portions on the glove and the decorative element, respectively, permits the use of a plurality of decorative elements with a single pair of gloves, there are also some negative effects due to the metal to metal or plastic to plastic contact between male and female snap portions which impart to the decorative element a tendency to rotate about the glove and therefore assume unattractive and undesirable positions relative to the glove. For example, in the case of a bow, it is obviously intended that the bow extend laterally of the wearer's hand and not longitudinally thereof. With the use of conventional male and female snap portions, on the ornamental element and the glove, respectively, the snap portions are in physical engagement with each other resulting in metal to metal contact wherein the snap portion on the glove provides, in effect, a bearing for the snap portion on the ornamental element, creating the aforementioned tendency of the ornamental element to rotate in response to the slightest movement of the hand or in response to the inadvertent contact of the ornamental element with another object.
It is important to note that the object to be achieved is the duplication, to the extent possible, of the appearance of a glove to which an ornamental element has been permanently fastened, as by stitching. This visual impression is not possible with the conventional use of male and female snap portions wherein the snap portions are sewed on the outer surfaces of the glove and decorative elements, respectively, causing the ornamental element to be spaced from the glove by the combined thicknesses of the engaged male and female snap portions. This results in an aesthetically unacceptable arrangement with the ornamental element being raised substantially above the surface of the glove proper.
The duplication of the appearance of a permanently attached ornamental accessory to the glove requires the use of an accessory which appears to be firmly attached onto the glove, without any spacing between the accessory and the glove, and also requires that the ornamental element does not tilt or swing out of position. The use of snap fastener elements, in the conventional manner, as pointed out above, does not produce an arrangement which visually duplicates the desired look of a permanently attached accessory onto the glove.
The securing of an accessory to a glove is crucial to its appearance. Highly skilled sewing machine operators on special type machines, or highly skilled hand sewers are required to do the tedious work of securing the ornamental accessory onto the glove properly.
Thus the primary object of the invention is to provide means for permitting the use of any selected one of a plurality of ornamental accessories with a single glove, by using a snap fastener arrangement, but without the accompanying drawbacks of having the ornamental element spaced a significant amount from the surface of the glove proper, and with a tendency to pivot about the snap at the slightest provocation.
In accordance with the invention, the snap fastener portion provided on the glove is the female snap portion which is secured to the inner side of the glove rather than to the outer side thereof and the complementary male snap portion is stitched onto the ornamental element. Thus, when the glove is worn without any accessory, the snap portion on the glove is inside the glove and hardly visible. The glove is provided with a slit which confronts the cavity of the female snap portion so that the projection of the male snap fastener portion can be inserted into the female snap portion cavity in order to snap therein and complete the fastening operation. The edges of the slit are preferably finished off as in a button hole, in order to prevent any unraveling of the material of the glove. When the ornamental element, which is provided with the male snap portion, is snapped into the female snap portion on the inside of the glove, with the projection passing through the slit and engaging the cavity, the glove material is trapped between the confronting surfaces of the respective snap elements to avoid a metal to metal contact between these two surfaces and thus provide friction between the two snap portions to minimize the tendency of one to rotate with respect to the other. In addition, because the female snap fastener element is secured to the inner side of the glove the ornamental element is not spaced from the glove by an amount equal to the thickness of the female snap portion. Since the female snap portion of a snap fastener arrangement is approximately three times the thickness of a male fastener element the result of the arrangement in accordance with the invention is to create the appearance of having the ornamental element secured, as by stitching, directly onto the glove, while at the same time having the capacity to be interchangeably used with different ornamental elements or accessories.
Where the glove fabric is provided with natural holes or openings, as is the case with lace, no slits are necessary since the projecting element of the male snap fastener portion can easily be snapped into the female cavity by passing through one of the natural openings in the fabric and all the advantages of this arrangement are preserved.
Where the glove fabric is very sheer, no slit is necessary, as a proper snap fastener element can be selected in which the male and female snap portions can be snapped together with the sheer material captive therebetween. In this arrangement, again, the ornamental element is constrained from pivotal movement by the friction between the captive material and the confronting surfaces, and the ornamental element also appears to be close to the surface of the glove, as is the case in a permanently secured ornamental element.
It is also an object of the invention to provide means for permitting the use of any selected one of a plurality of ornamental elements with articles of wearing apparel other than gloves, as for example, hosiery, dresses, sweaters, as well as pocketbooks, and other accessories of the type to bear ornamental elements. In each case, there is provided a female snap portion which is secured to the inner side of the hosiery, dress, or handbag as the case may be, and the complementary male snap portion is secured to the ornamental element.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following detailed description which is to be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.